Skip class and collect the cash

Federal financial aid can help college students' dreams come true. It can also line fraudsters' pockets with undeserved, unearned "aid," which costs taxpayers' money and steals deserving students' futures. The author outlines how ringleaders are committing this fraud and what universities and the general public can do to combat it.

In 2009, University of Phoenix fraud reports pinpointed 12 student records that all included the address of an Atwater, Calif., apartment complex — seven with the same apartment number (and presumably not the penthouse). Several months later, a university employee reported receiving a suspicious call from one of these students who appeared to be well-versed in school procedural information not normally known by first-time college applicants. The employee also noticed that the student's phone number matched numbers listed on student accounts that were in or nearing collection status. The situation continued to grow in size and suspicion as more students, with matching demographic information, made blunders such as accidentally contacting school advisors using the email accounts of other scheme members rather than their own.